* Gold jumps 1.8 pct, second day of gains
* Fannie, Freddie bailout lifts commodities, gold in tow
(Adds comments, updates prices to late afternoon)
By Chikafumi Hodo
TOKYO, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Gold jumped almost 2 percent on
Monday, lifted by a broad rally across the commodities spectrum
on hopes that a U.S. bailout of top mortgage lenders would
encourage investors to return to riskier assets.
Despite gold's claim to be the ultimate safe haven,
investors appeared on Monday to be lumping it into the same
pool as metals and oil, the latter of which also surged ahead
as Hurricane Ike barrelled across Cuba towards the Gulf of
Mexico.
Spot gold <XAU=> extended gains into a second session to
stand at $815.20 per ounce by 0554 GMT, up 1.8 percent from
$801.10 in late New York trade on Friday. Gold hit a
year-to-date low of $773.90 on Aug. 15.
"A sharp rise in crude oil and the euro's rise (against the
dollar) pushed up gold. A general bullish tone in other
commodities encouraged buying in gold," said said Shuji Sugata,
a manager at Mitsubishi Corp Futures and Securities in Tokyo.
The U.S. government acted on Sunday to seize control of
mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae <FNM.N> and Freddie Mac
<FRE.N>, in a move that may temper the global financial market
turbulence that has threatened economic growth. []
Gold was also buoyed by the euro's <EUR=> further gains
against the dollar on Monday as it rose to around $1.4430, off
an 11-month low of $1.4197 touched last week.
Analysts said gold's bounce on Monday appeared more likely
to be cautionary short-covering after a tumble from nearly
$1,000 an ounce in mid-July, with some uncertainty still
lingering.
"I don't think investors are building new longs actively
now after seeing sharp declines in recent trading," said Tatsuo
Kageyama, an analyst at Kanetsu Asset Management in Tokyo.
"Gold is up now, but once when the financial markets settle
down, I think gold will fall again," Kageyama said.
The outlook of gold was still bearish, but it could gather
safe-haven appeal with the outlook for the U.S. currency and
the economy unclear, traders said.
The market needed more time to see the impact of the U.S.
government's action regarding the two U.S. mortgage giants.
"Looking at the strong recovery in stocks, the financial
market is responding to the rescue plan positively, but
uncertainty remains as we are still not confident that this
move will completely remove concerns," Mitsubishi's Sugata
said.
"Considering that uncertainties will remain, gold could be
supported as it can draw demand as a safe-haven instrument."
Crude oil jumped more than $2 to near $109 a barrel on
Monday, rebounding from a five-month low on worries that
Hurricane Ike would tear through the Gulf of Mexico.
It was also down on hopes that the mortgage lender bailout
would help temper an economic downturn.
Tokyo gold futures jumped nearly 5 percent and COMEX gold
futures climbed almost 2 percent.
The most active COMEX December contract <GCZ8> was trading
up 2 percent at $818.8 per ounce after closing New York with
small 40 cent losses on Friday.
The benchmark August 2009 contract on the Tokyo Commodity
Exchange <0#JAU:> was trading at 2,863 yen per gram, up 4.8
percent.
Precious metals prices at 0551 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 814.40 11.60 +1.44 -2.20
Spot Silver 12.59 0.37 +3.03 -14.76
Spot Platinum 1380.50 19.50 +1.43 -9.18
Spot Palladium 273.00 5.50 +2.06 -25.82
TOCOM Gold 2862.00 131.00 +4.80 -6.47
33540
TOCOM Platinum 4786.00 174.00 +3.77 -10.36
13967
TOCOM Silver 443.80 11.00 +2.54 -17.97
941
TOCOM Palladium 986.00 38.00 +4.01 -27.02
599
Euro/Dollar 1.4407
Dollar/Yen 108.68
TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except for silver which is in
yen per 10 grams, spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Additional reporting by Risa Maeda; Editing by Ben Tan)
